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Is There a Doctor in the House?
Xena and Gabrielle get caught up in the middle of a civil war, and find a heavily pregnant Ephiny hiding on the battlefield. They resort to a healing temple, where the religious healers are baffled a offended by Xena's unorthadox ways of healing and lack of respect for the Gods. Summary Taking the shortest route to Athens, Xena and Gabrielle find themselves approaching a terrible battle scene. Xena explains that the Mitoans and Thessalians have been waging a civil war against each other, and are fighting for control of the pass which is the only route between Thessally and Mitoa. Suddenly, they hear a woman moaning and discover the Amazon Ephiny, hiding nearby. Newly widowed and about to give birth, Ephiny explains that she and her Centaur husband Phantes wanted to have their baby in Athens but on the way there, Phantes was captured and killed by the Mitoans. Xena, determined to put an end to the war, leaves Ephiny in Gabrielle's care and sneaks up on Mitoan General Marmax as he talks to his aides. When he rides away on his horse seeking a better vantage point, Xena succeeds in wounding and capturing him. Stripping him of his signs of rank, she forces him to enter the Thessalian Temple of Asclepius, then tends to Ephiny. The healing temple teems with the wounded and dying of both sides and when Xena sees how little attention the injured Mitoans are given by the attending Thessalian priests, she applies her own knowledge of medicine and surgical procedures to save as many lives as possible. Two young priests, Hippocrates and Democrits, become increasingly impressed by her abilities and prove to be willing assistants despite the angry disapproval of the head priest Galen. With Xena in charge of medical care, some degree of order comes to the temple. But when Galen returns from the field with a new group of casualties and finds that Xena has turned his altar into an operating theater for both Mitoan and Thessalian patients, the high priest orders that she be thrown out. Xena outwits and overpowers Galen's guards and continues with her work. She is ably assisted by Gabrielle, who has by now deeply impressed Marmax with her brains, beauty and compassion. When a soldier is brought in with a gangrenous leg, Xena orders Marmax to help her with the amputation and the General gets a grisly, closeup look at the horrors of war. Soon after, when Gabrielle leaves the temple to search for a wounded soldier's fallen comrade, Marmax learns from Ephiny how his soldiers slaughtered her husband, who he correctly suspects was a Centaur from her account of the story. A few minutes later, a seriously wounded Gabrielle is carried in on a stretcher. As Xena stitches up Gabrielle's multiple knife wounds, Marmax is clearly astonished to learn that she refused to kill the man who stabbed her. With the battle approaching the temple grounds, Democritus begins organizing a group of women and children to protect them from attack when he is hit in the chest by an arrow. Galen rushes him into the temple and, for the first time, turns to Xena for help. Xena removes the arrow and works to stop the bleeding as Democritus passes out on the table right next to the unconscious Gabrielle. Just as the Thessalians begin bombarding the temple with catapults to stop the quickly advancing Mitoans, Ephiny is ready to give birth. Xena quickly determines that the baby is breech and assisted by Marmax, she operates and delivers a healthy baby Centaur. As the battle sounds grow louder, the Mitoan prisoners in the temple stage a revolt against the guards, but Marmax quickly takes command and sends messengers to announce that the war is over. He tells his men that in their quest for freedom, they have become everything they once despised, and now the madness must stop. At that moment, Gabrielle is seized by a convulsion and seems to slip away. Desperate, Xena gives her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and pounds on her chest in an attempt to get her breathing again. Though everyone tells her that her friend has died, Xena continues and eventually, Gabrielle responds. In the end, both Gabrielle and Democritus recover and Marmax realizes that it was Xena who wounded him in the first place in order to teach him the most valuable lesson of his life. Disclaimer Being that war is hell, lots of people were harmed during the production of this motion picture (but since television is a dramatic medium of make believe, all casualties removed their prosthetic make-up and went home unscathed). Background Information Links and References Guest Stars *Danielle Cormack (Ephiny) *Ray Woolf (Marmax) *Tony Billy (Mitoan Warrior) *Andrew Binns (Hippocrates) *Harriet Crampton (Hysterical Woman) *Edith (Runner) *Simon Farthing (Democritus) *Geoff Houtman (Gangrene Man) *Paul McLaren (POW Leader) *Adam Middleton (Blind Soldier) *Charles Pierard (Thessalian Guard) *Ron Smith (Galen) *Deane Vipond (Head Wound Man) References People Gods Places Other Category:XWP episodes Category:XWP Season One